Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency assesses people's fitness to drive within the targets set by the Government.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) receive more than 600,000 medical cases every year and the majority are dealt with swiftly and correctly. A significant number of those notifications will be complex cases where drivers have multiple medical conditions or take multiple medications. Typically complex cases need further investigation, often involving the expert opinion and input of the driver’s GP, consultants, specialists and other medical professionals.

The DVLA has recruited over 100 additional staff. This has led to significant improvements in the time taken to deal with medical licensing applications.

It is also recruiting additional medical staff to deal with the most complex cases, which will include an additional 10 doctors and 10 nurses.